321 



CROMLECH. 



CROSS. 



Saffron formerly enjoyed a high repute, both as a perfume, and as a 

 nervine, stomachic, and narcotic drug. That the odour has powerfully 

 affected some very susceptible individuals is undeniable ; but so little 

 regard is now paid to it, that it is employed chiefly as a colouring 

 ingredient, or adjunct to other more powerful agents. It is still a 

 popular remedy during the eruptive stage of exanthematous diseases, a 

 remnant of the old doctrine of colours ; and to the same notion is to 

 be referred the practice of giving it to canary birds when moulting, a 

 practice reprobated by Bechstein, who judiciously recommends iron to 

 be put into the water at these times, such as a rusty nail. (Beclistein, 

 On ' Cage Birds,' p. 223.) 



The stigmata of the Crocus vernus have a colouring principle which 

 is imparted very readily to alcohol, less so to water or oil. But as 

 these can be procured at a much cheaper rate than those of C. sativua, 

 they might be used where colour alone is required. 



CROMLECH. Certain primeval remains, consisting of three or 

 more rude stones set upright in the earth, and supporting one large 

 homontal stone so as to bear a general resemblance to a table, have 

 long been known in this country as cromlechs. The first application of 

 the name does not appear to be known, but if its meaning be as stated 

 by Dr. Pughe, " an inclined or flat stone," it would seem to be merely 

 a convenient popular designation. Worsaae and some recent anti- 

 quaries have extended the word so as to make it synonymous with the 

 German Steingraber, and Hiinengraber, stone graves and giants' graves ; 

 but here it will be used in its more confined and more usual sense. 



Cromlechs are met with in various parts of England, Ireland, Scot- 

 land, and Wales, and the Channel Islands ; in Brittany and other parts 

 of France (where they are known as Dolmen) ; in Germany, Denmark, 

 Spain, and elsewhere in Europe ; in North and South America, and 

 even in various parts of Hindustan (Capt. Meadows Taylor, ' Crom- 

 lechs, Cairns, and other Scytho-Druidic Remains in the principality of 

 Sorapur ;' and Hooker's ' Himalayan Journals,' ii. p. 320, &c.) They 

 have consequently formed a fertile subject for the speculations of 

 antiquaries and local historians. By many of our earlier antiquarian 

 writers they werej regarded as closely connected with the rites of 

 Dmidic worship whence then- common name of druidical altan. The 

 top or cap-stone, or bowing-ilonc as it was sometimes called, was con- 

 sidered to have been placed in a horizontal position in order to receive 

 the human victim ; a slight inclination being given to the stone for the 

 purpose of letting the blood run off. A single atone of large size 

 occasionally found near the cromlech was supposed to have served as a 

 pedestal for some deity. These opinions are pretty well exploded now. 

 It is seen that the cap-stones have almost invariably the flat side 

 turned downwards, and are indeed in all respects as unfitted for the 

 reception of sacrificial victims as they well could be. On the other 

 h.inil, wherever they have not been disturbed human remains are 

 f' inn. I in connection with them. Extended investigation has shown 

 that among races in an early stage of civilisation it was a very wide- 

 spread practice to protect the remains of a person of consequence 

 with a massive stone covering. Cromlechs are now, in short, admitted 

 by all archaeological inquirers to have been places of sepulture. Origin- 

 ally, they were covered over with earth, and the circle of small stones 

 by which they are still in many instances surrounded was probably 

 the boundary of the enclosure, and defined the base of the tumulus. 

 Much light has been thrown on the purport of cromlechs, and the 

 modes of interment adopted in connection with them, by Mr. Lukis, who 

 explored a large number of these monuments in Guernsey, which had 

 fortunately been previously unopened. He found on removing the 

 superincumbent earth and sand outside the inner chamber, or 

 cromlech proper, not only human bones, but bones of the horse, 

 the ox, and the boar; stones used for grinding and pounding, 

 atone quoits, hammers, chisels, arrow-heads, &c., as well as rude 

 pottery ; and within the chamber, burnt human remains, and jars of 

 vurious sizes containing limpet shells, tax, which he with great pro- 

 bability supposes were intended as food and offerings to the manes of 

 the deceased. " The burnt human bones," he says, " appeared in 

 distinct heaps, and the jars in contact had partaken of the colour of 

 them. The very perfect calcination which had been adopted, made 

 it difficult to conceive what kind of process had been used. Little or 

 no charcoal was observed ; the teeth were of a fine jet black ; and the 

 bones of the jaws grayish white ; and, in some instances tinged with 

 turquoise green colour." In the cromlech opened by him at L'Ancresse, 

 in the northern part of Guernsey, Mr. Lukis found forty urns, varying 

 from four to eighteen inches in height, but from the fragments of 

 pottery remaining he arrived at the conclusion, that " not fewer than 

 one hundred varieties of vessels must have been deposited from time 

 to time during the primeval period." But he found in some crom- 

 lechs bodies interred which had not been subjected to cremation. 

 Tliu.n in one of the most extensive of the sepulchral chambers opened 

 by liim, called the Cromlech Du Tus, Mr. Lukis discovered on re- 

 "^ the cap-stone of the cromlech, two entire skeletons placed side 

 Ijy i<le in a kneeling position, the face of one being directed towards 

 the north, and that of the other towards the south. (' Archaeological 

 Journal,' voL i., and ' Journal of the Archreological Association.') 



'if the largest of these remains in Great Britain is a double crom- 

 lech at Has Newydd, Anglesey. [ANGLESEY, in GEOO. Drv.] The cap- 

 tone of the larger of the two cromlechs is 12 feet long, 10 feet broad,- 

 and I feet thick, and is supported by four tall stoned. There are, or were 



ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. II 



a few years back, no fewer than twenty-six other cromlechs in the Isle 

 of Anglesey. One of the best known cromlechs in the southern part 

 of England is that called Kit's Coty House, which stands near the 

 road between Maidstone and Rochester, Kent. [AYLESFORD, in GEOO. 

 DIV.] This, which resembles in character the Cromlech Du Tus, in 

 which Mr. Lukis found the two kneeling skeletons, is formed by four 

 upright stones, three of which standing on end and inclining slightly 

 inwards, support the fourth, or cap-stone. This last is a huge block, 

 12 feet long, 9 feet wide, and 2 feet thick ; while two of the upright 

 stones are 8 feet high, 7 feet wide, and 2 feet thick. Another very 

 noted cromlech consisting of several stones is that known as Wayland 

 Smith's Cave, at Ashbury in Berkshire [BERKSHIRE, in GEOO. Drv.], 

 but it is now in a very imperfect state, many of the stones having been 

 broken and carried away for building a neighbouring barn. 



CROPS. [EMBLEMENTS.] 



CROPS, ROTATION OF. [ARABLE LAND.] 



CROSIER, or CROZIER, from Crocia, in the Latin of the middle 

 age, a pastoral staff or crook, formerly used by bishops and abbots. 

 Several writers have supposed that it was derived from the lituus, or 

 augural staff of the Romans : but they are mistaken. It was evidently 

 copied from the well-known and common staff which shepherds, even 

 to this day, make use of to catch hold of the hinder leg of their sheep 

 in order to take them ; and it has reference to the pastoral office of the 

 bishops and clergy, according to the words of our Saviour, " I am the 

 good shepherd," and to the common name of the clergy, pastors or 

 shepherds. 



These pastoral staffs were sometimes barely curled, and at others 

 very richly ornamented ; a few instances occur in which the upper part 

 finishes in the form of a mace. The Sieur de Moteon, in his ' Voyages 

 Liturgiques de France,' 8vo, Par. 1718, p. 272, says, many of the early 

 crosiers were not curved. The abbot's staff was usually of a simpler 

 form than that of the bishop. One of the earliest abbatical staffs, the 

 form of which can be seen in England, is probably that represented on 

 the tomb of abbot Vitalis, in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, who 

 died in 1082. Some of the episcopal crosiers appear to have been among 

 the most exquisite examples of the 1 3th and 14th century Italian gold- 

 smiths' and enamel work ; some of the French crosiers of the same 

 date are also extremely rich and of admirable workmanship. (Labarte, 

 Du Sommerard, De Caumont, Waring, &c.) The most splendid 

 English episcopal crosier remaining is that of William of Wykeham, 

 of silver gilt, richly enamelled, which is exhibited to visitors in the 

 chapel of New College, Oxford, to the society of which the bishop him- 

 self bequeathed it in 1404. (See Lowth's ' Life of Wykeham,' 3rd edit. 

 8vo, Oxf. 1777, p. 263, where it is engraved.) Another very fine cross, 

 beautifully ornamented with nielli, is that of Bishop Fox (died 1528), 

 preserved at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. A crosier of oak was 

 found on opening the tomb of Bishop Fox at Winchester. Crosiers of 

 wood were in ancient times usually buried with bishops and abbots in 

 their coffins. One, of red wood, the top carved into the rude form of a 

 ram's head, was found many years ago, upon opening the coffin of 

 bishop Grosteste at Lincoln, who died in 1253. It lay across the body 

 from the right shoulder to the left foot. At the bottom of the neck of 

 this staff, upon a brass plate, was this inscription : " Per baculi f ormam 

 Prelati discito normam." (Gough, ' Sepulchr. Mon." vol. i. p. 47.) 



According to Labarte it is an error of modern writers to apply the 

 term crosier ' ' to the crook-shaped pastoral staff of a bishop ; the 

 crosier, strictly so called, is the cross on a staff borne by an archbishop." 

 (' Arts of the Middle Ages," p. 430, trans.) But whatever may be the 

 " strict " use of the term in the Romish church, crosier is the received 

 term among English archaeologists for the episcopal crook. The crosier 

 in the sense used by Labarte, or as we should say the cross, is employed 

 by the Romish hierarchy as a mark of distinction. Thus the pope alone 

 is entitled to have a cross with three transverse beams carried before 

 him ; cardinals and archbishops have the double cross ; while bishops 

 have a cross of the ordinary form, or with a single beam. (Didron, 

 ' Iconographie Chre'tienne.') 



CROSS. Various religious edifices called crosses, from their being 

 surmounted with this emblem of Christianity, have been erected in 

 England and on the Continent. Of these, the most remarkable in 

 England are the memorial crosses erected on the places where the body 

 of Eleanor, queen of Edward I., rested each night on its way for 

 interment in London. Three of these still remain, at Geddington, 

 Northampton, and Waltham Cross, near London. The last, which is 

 the most elegant, consists of four stories. It is hexagonal on the 

 ground plan, and beautifully enriched ; the story immediately above 

 this is supported by buttresses, and formed into niches, in which are 

 three figures of the queen. The core at the back of the figures is 

 carried up beyond the niches, and has been restored with a battlement 

 and a cross sustained on a crocketted spire. Market-crosses were for- 

 merly very common in England. They are often designed with niches 

 and vaulted, thus forming an open chamber, as at Salisbury and 

 Chichester. Other crosses of this kind remain at Malmsbury, Glas- 

 tonbury, and elsewhere. Winchester Cross, which is one of the most 

 perfect of the crosses erected for religious purposes, is of much later 

 date than those erected in memory of Queen Eleanor. Near Ely, on 

 the road to Downham Market, there is a singular cross, consisting of a 

 long slender stone shaft, on the top of which there are richly carved 

 niches projecting beyond the sides of the shaft. Pillar crosses were 



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